World Championship 2011 - Judd Trumps Ding

After fourteen days of top snooker we finally know the identity of one of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2011 finalists. It's only the 21-year-old qualifier from Bristol; Judd Trump! He came through in the high-quality semi-final 17-15 over Masters champion Ding Junhui.

Coming into this tournament a few people had fancied Judd Trump to upset the 2010 world champion Neil Robertson in the first round and even fewer fancied him for the title but there hopes in Judd were not wrong as he came out on top in an amazing high quality semi-final against Ding Junhui today.

Both players were on the one-table set up for the first time in the opening session, but there was no obvious signs of nerves as they hit a century a piece (102 for Ding and 110 for Judd) in the opening two frames. Judd would win the last frame of the session with the help of a 59 break to give him a two frame cushion at 5-3 going in to the next one.

The second session went more the way of Ding though as he started off strong with a break of 91. Judd took the next two in a row with two breaks of 51 and 49 but that was it for the 21-year-old as he would then go on to lose the next five frames on the bounce. He had a chance in the 14th frame but Ding stole it on the final black which Judd should of got. The session ended 9-7 to the Chinese player.

Ding then extended his lead to 10-7 ahead of Judd with a 64 in the first frame, at this point Judd had lost the last six frames in a row. Judd showed us all what he was made of though as some fantastic breaks of 67, 71, 61, 102 and 123 helped him win five of six frames go 12-11 ahead. He could of lead 13-11 going into the final session but a break of 87 from Ding saw him level the match at 12-12, all to play for!

Judd stunned Ding in the first two frames with breaks of 74 and 89 to go 14-12 up, but Ding wasn't going to take it sitting down, he responded with an amazing 138 break which equals the tournament high break set by Mark King in the first round. Judd then failed to score higher than 51 in the next and a cool break of 47 helped Ding on his way to a 14-14 scoreline. After a fantastic long red in the next Ding slotted in a 119 clearance to go 15-14 ahead and went favourite for the match.

There was another twist to this match though as Ding broke down on 48 and Judd then cleared the colours to go level at 15-15, the momentum was with the player from Bristol now as he would then go on to win the last two frames in a row with confident breaks of 68 and 105 to reach his first world championship final on only his second visit to the Crucible and as a qualifier as well.

Winning the China Open is probably the main reason for Judd's success in this tournament as he has clearly been spurred on by that victory and after each match he has won here. He will now face the winner of the match between Mark Williams and John Higgins, both players are former multiple world champions and will obviously be favourite over the long format but Judd has shown us that he isn't afraid of anyone this week.